Preposizioni e complementatori non finiti nel dialetto galloitalico di Nicosia (EN) (a, da/na, cö, de, pe, ta)

This paper provides a corpus-based analysis of the syntax and semantics of the main prepositions and complementizers of the Gallo-Italic dialect spoken in Nicosia and Sperlinga (en), and aims to shed new light on preposition/non finite complementizer syntactic properties in general. For each preposition, a clear distinction is made between its occurrences as an adjunct prepositional phrase (PP) head and as an argument PP head. In the former case, the head delivers its own lexical contribution to the semantics of the sentence, whereas in the latter all meanings depend on the head selecting the PP as its own argument. Internal syntax is also investigated in detail: different prepositions display different selection rules for their nominal complements. Some select only bare noun phrases, others select full determiner phrases and others still require more complex combinations of features. Some inconsistencies between dialect and Italian are found with regard to this. Finally, some frequent idiosincracies in locative PPs are addressed by proposing that locative prepositions and their complements merge according to a special “compatibility” feature of the noun projecting the complement phrase: merging is possible only if the noun is compatible with the preposition head.